It's cash-for-terror in India; Rs 2 crore up for grabs

Lucknow, Jul 18: With the Mumbai Blast coming as a rude shock to Mumbaikars and Indians at large, the police and Anti-Terror Squad have upped their efforts to comb all terror groups and operatives across the country. The Uttar Pradesh police is probing a mystery call to a meat trader in Meerut offering his cash to organise riots and blasts in the city. The revelation was made by a senior police officer and the call seem to have merged from Iran. The Special Task Force has been put into action to probe the matter further.

The matter was reported by the Meerut trader, Hashim Ilahi himself when he said that he received the offer-for-cash calls at night on Jul 13. He added that he was offered two crore for engineering riots and blasts in the city, with the caller claiming that he was from Iran. He said, "They called me from these three numbers + 9837173840, + 3444050 and + 7868970150."

Ilahi must have been chosen for the deadly assignment because the last three digits of his phone number was 786, a number that is considered auspicious by Islam, a newspaper report said.

The Special Director General of police Brij Lal stated on this curious case, "The investigation into the case is being handed over to the STF... Initial investigation has revealed that the call originated from Iran and landed at India gateway through US and the subscriber got it through a private operator."

OneIndia News